<a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels" title="Go back to the front page"> Butterflies and Wheels

Simply revolting. The Roman Catholic church has written to every state-funded Catholic secondary school in England and Wales asking them to encourage pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage…The Catholic Education Service, which acts for Catholic bishops in England and Wales, contacted 385 secondary schools to highlight a letter read in parish churches last …

Tags: Religious bullying, Simply revolting

26 comments

Apr 25 2012

They should follow it without any argument

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It’s a small (comparatively) sect in India that insists on mutilating girls’ genitalia. The Bohra brand of Islam is followed by 1.2 million people worldwide and is a sect of Shia Islam that originated in Yemen. While the sect bars other Muslims from its mosques, it sees itself as more liberal, treating men and women …

Tags: Religious bullying, Theocracy

8 comments

Apr 24 2012

Reportedly offended by

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Egypt. A court in Egypt has upheld the three-month prison sentence given to the leading comic actor, Adel Imam, for insulting Islam in his films and plays. Is that an accurate translation? Is that really what the charge is? “Insulting” Islam? How do you “insult” an abstraction? In English, at least, you don’t. You don’t “insult” …

4 comments

Mar 15 2012

A triumph for the Texas Taliban

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So there’s this couple in Texas looking forward to their second baby, a brother for their 2-year-old daughter. Yet now my doctor was looking grim and, with chair pulled close, was speaking of alarming things. “I’m worried about your baby’s head shape,” she said. “I want you to see a specialist—now.” My husband looked angry, …

Tags: God hates women, Misogyny, Religious bullying

165 comments

Mar 14 2012

More strident shrill atheism

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A high school in Iowa got a Christian rock band to come to the school to tell the students some good stuff, but it didn’t work out as well as the school expected. (Secularism? What secularism? We don’t do no stinkin’ secularism round here.) Everyone anticipated the message from Junkyard Prophet, a traveling band based …

19 comments

Mar 07 2012

True or false: atheism is the source of all evil

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More anti-atheist bullshit, this time from a college in Dublin. Michael Nugent explains. Hibernia College Dublin, in its Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education, is teaching as part of its Religion module several untrue statements about atheism and at least two defamatory allegations about modern atheists. This includes course notes that claim that “What …

17 comments

Mar 07 2012

“Atheists are not being persecuted”

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Another pile of foetid dingo’s kidneys bashing atheists at spiked. The title (not necessarily chosen by the author): God save us from atheist whining. The subtitle (ditto): A US campaign encouraging atheists ‘out of the closet’ is fuelled more by victim culture than secularist principles. Says a UK publication, says a Swedish writer. I wonder if …

Tags: Lying for god, Religious bullying

14 comments

Feb 26 2012

What price the golden rule eh?

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Another truculent Christian who plans to go to the Reason Rally in order to interfere with other people’s event. Richard Dawkins will be one of the main speakers, which tells us about all we need to know. Richard Dawkins of course is the leading horseman of the new atheism with his book “The God Delusion.” This …

Tags: Religious bullying, Richard Dawkins

27 comments

Feb 25 2012

More “confronting with love”

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From “the Thinking Christian” (they do love to pretend it’s all perfectly reasonable, don’t they). In the meantime I’ve joined up with a handful of Christian thinkers and leaders planning to bring Christians to the Reason Rally for the purpose of sharing quiet conversations with Reason Rally attendees, offering bottles of water to the thirsty, …